The 2011 HOT ROD Top Speed Challenge

For each of the last 7 years, HOT ROD has trekked to Maxton, North Carolina, to cover the East Coast Timing Association meet on the old WWII runway there. The ECTA holds five races a year there, which you can learn about at ECTA-LSR.com. They are standing-mile events, where cars accelerate from a standstill to the 132-foot timing trap at the end of a mile, and they are given their speeds.

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The rules and classes are similar to those used by the Southern California Timing Association at Bonneville and El Mirage, though the ECTA also offers street-legal classes, and HOT ROD awards jackets to the fastest cars in the two street classes. For the first time ever, the 2011 class winners were both the same guy, Kris Henderson in his Chevy 572-powered '59 Jaguar that went 195 mph. He swapped classes in the middle of the meet, going from Gas to Fuel so he could run nitrous to try and go 200 mph. He missed that goal, but went down in HOT ROD history, sort of by mistake.

Print coverage of the event is in the Aug. '11 issue of HOT ROD magazine, and this photo gallery gives you a peek at almost all the cars that were in attendance.